Reviews and More

If you’re considering plastic surgery, then you probably have a lot of questions or concerns about the various procedures that are available to you. Of course your doctor is ultimately the best source of information and you should base your decisions accordingly. However, there are probably times when you simply want basic info without having to go in for a consultation. That’s when a website like PlasticSurgery101.net can really help.

PlasticSurgery101.net provides reliable plastic surgery information that can help you make preliminary choices about the procedures you’re most interested in or lay the groundwork for more complex questions that you can bring to your doctor when you’re ready for a professional consultation.

On this website you can learn about the most common procedures (rhinoplasty, breast augmentation, face lift, tummy tuck, liposuction, etc.) and even view pictures that will give you an idea of how the procedures work. The explanations are comprehensive, easy to understand, and tell you what you can expect to go through before, during, and after your surgery. Plus, there are many helpful diagrams throughout the articles that further illustrate the various procedures.

Overall, PlasticSurgery101.net looks like an excellent source of plastic surgery information. Remember that you should always consult with a licensed surgeon before actually undergoing any procedures, but until you get to that point, PlasticSurgery101.net is a great place to start!

Jennifer Aniston was one of my favorite television actresses when she was on Friends, but her movies have been somewhat hit or miss for me. I usually like her stuff, but sometimes get the feeling that she keeps rehashing the Rachel Green character over and over. When Rumor Has It came out, there was no question that I would see it; the only question was whether the film would be a hit or miss for me.

The basic premise of Rumor Has It is rather intriguing. It’s set up as sort of a sequel to The Graduate, and thats that specious connection a step further. In the film’s reality, the original author of the book based the story on “real people” in the Pasadena area. The real people of the story, of course, are the characters that populate Rumor Has It.

Aniston plays Sarah Huttinger, whose grandmother (played by Shirley MacLaine was in all likelihood the original Mrs. Robinson. Benjamin Braddock might have been based on Beau Burroughs (Kevin Costner), who now is a dot com millionaire and lives up the coast in San Francisco. Before Sarah can get married to her fiancé Jeff (Mark Ruffalo), she must find out her family’s history (and her own) by tracking down Burroughs and confronting him about his affairs with her mother and grandmother.

(I’ve made the plot sound a bit confusing, but I assure you that the movie is actually pretty easy to follow.)

My Reaction: I’m not big on romantic comedies, but I found that I enjoyed sitting through Rumor Has It. That’s not to say that it was a particularly good film, but it was entertaining in some parts and watchable on the whole. Aniston was at her girl-next-door best, and Shirley MacLaine was outstanding as the grandmother who might have been the original Mrs. Robinson. Heck, even Kevin Costner was charming, and I haven’t liked any of his movies in over a decade!

Yes, Rumor Has It is predictable in many places and the plot is not as tight as it could be. But if you just want a couple hours of laid back entertainment, then this film will serve you well. I give it 6.0 stars out of 10.

If you’ve got a great product or service to sell, then chances are you’re going to want to create an online presence sooner rather than later. By taking your business online, you can reach customers all over the world and complete sales and other transactions 24/7 while absorbing very low overhead costs. In fact, these days there’s really no excuse for you not to have your own website — unless, of course, you don’t have the time or the skills required to get a professional looking design in place.

That’s where a company like SiteProPlus comes into play. SiteProPlus offers a unique service that busy entrepreneurs and small business owners would do well to take advantage of. They’ll create a custom website design for you without any obligation on your part at all. If you don’t like it, you can walk away and continue your search elsewhere. But if you do like it, then all you have to do is sign up for a SiteProPlus hosting package and you’ll get your custom design thrown into the bargain absolutely free. What’s more, SiteProPlus will have your new site up and running within 72 hours, which means you’ll be able to begin operations in just a few days.

If website design is the only thing preventing you from taking your business online, then I encourage you to take a closer look at the services that SiteProPlus offers and request more information from them today.

I’ve been meaning to see Vanity Fair ever since it came out in 2004, but for one reason or another, I didn’t get around to it until last night. The movie is of course based on the William Makepeace Thackeray novel of the same name, a novel that I’ve read — and enjoyed — twice. That’s no small feat considering it’s a 900+ page tome! Anyway, my excitement and anticipation for the movie increased greatly when I heard that Reese Witherspoon would be playing Becky Sharp. I couldn’t wait to see what she would do with the character.

As with any adaptation, there are bound to be differences from the original material. My review isn’t going to focus on these differences; instead, I’m going to consider the movie on its own.

Vanity Fair focuses on Becky Sharp, a young woman with no fortune and no family who is left to try to make her own way in the world. She leaves finishing school with a single friend, Amelia Sedley (played by Romola Garai) and not much else. Becky goes to stay with Amelia for a few days, immediately setting her sights on Amelia’s brother Joseph. Right from the start we see that Becky intends to marry well so that she will be taken care of.

Anyway, Jos is bound for India and Becky thinks he would make a suitable husband. Amelia encourages the match because she truly likes Becky and would love to have her as a sister. But Amelia’s own betrothed, Captain George Osborne, does not want a low-class girl in his family so he tells Jos not to even think about Becky anymore. Jos gives up and heads off to India by himself.

There’s nothing left for Becky to do except earn her keep as a governess. She accepts a post at the Crawley residence, where she meets Sir Pitt, his sons Pitt and Rawdon, and his rich sister Matilda. Matilda takes an instant liking to Becky, and brings her away from Crawley Hall as her companion. These good feelings change, however, when Becky discloses that she has secretly married Rawdon. That news is not well received, and Becky is kicked out of Ms. Crawley’s house while Rawdon is disinherited.

The two live genuinely seem to love each other, so they don’t mind living in relative poverty. Rawdon is a gambler and his winnings provide them with just enough. Becky manages the household and uses her charms to get credit from local merchants. But one day their money runs out completely, and just when their furniture is about to be taken away, Lord Steyne steps in to save the day.

Lord Steyne not only pays their debts, but invites them to social functions at his home, which serves to restore their place in society. Of course his attentions don’t come without a price. He demands sexual favors from Becky, and when Rawdon finds out, he takes their son and leaves her.

More than a decade later, we see Becky working as a casino girl in Germany. One day Jos Sedley comes in and says that he’s there to rectify the mistake he made all those years ago. They go off to India together where they presumably live on as husband and wife.

Through it all, Amelia has her own storyline that deals with George, George’s falling out with his father, the upbringing of their child, and her relationship with George’s friend Dobbin.

My Reaction: I found that I enjoyed this film a great deal. Yes, it was very long and actually rather boring in some parts, but I thought Witherspoon’s performance made the whole thing worth it. Her take on Becky Sharp is quite different than how the character is presented in the novel. Here, Witherspoon’s Becky, while still an obvious social climber, isn’t quite so heartless or cold as in the book. She has many redeeming qualities and gives off the feeling of being an underdog rather than a ruthless schemer.

The supporting cast was great, too. I thought James Purefoy was excellent as Rawdon, as was Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as George. The actors made me want to pay attention even when the plot was a bit lacking in tension or excitement.

Overall, I thought this was a good film. It’s not quite the adaptation that I thought it would be and didn’t follow the book as closely as I would have liked, but judging on its own merits I give it 7.0 stars out of 10.

For the most part, my husband and I have a very good relationship. We’ve been together for a total of 10 years (married for six), and in that time we’ve learned to appreciate each other’s good qualities and tolerate the bad, which I think is the key to going the distance.

Even though my husband and I get along so well, I’m still interested in reading about how to maintain a healthy relationship. Towards that end, I’m always on the lookout for great resources that can provide me with solid advice in this area. Today I discovered an interesting website called Relationship Headquarters, as well as its Understanding Men blog. The website has lots of insightful relationship articles that deal with topics such as fear of commitment, clear communication, and what men really want, while the blog gives the Relationship Doctor’s opinion and comments on articles or information found on other sites around the Internet.

The advice on RelationshipHeadquarters.com and the Understanding Men blog is suitable for both married and single people, so I recommend taking a look if you want to build better relationships now and in the future.

The latest episode of How I Met Your Mother was called “Arrivederci, Fiero” and paid homage to Marshall’s trusty car. Here’s what happened:

Marshall and Ted are in the Fiero getting ready to celebrate a momentous occasion. The odometer is about to hit the 200,000 mile mark and the guys will celebrate with Cuban cigars. Unfortunately, Marshall gets distracted by Ted and hits a pothole, which causes the car to sputter and die. The guys have it towed to a shop where they learn that the prognosis is not good. The car will require $3,000 worth of work, and even then there would be no guarantee that it will run.

As Marshall faces this tough decision, the gang reflect back on all the adventures they’ve had with the Fiero. It was in that car that Marshall and Ted spent a snowbound night during college and finally became best friends. It was in that car that Lily and Robin transported food (strictly against the rules), spilled said food, and then orchestrated a cover-up to deceive Marshall — all of which led to those two becoming best friends. It was in that car that Barney first learned to drive and crashed into some bushes going about 5 mph.

All of those great memories convince Marshall that the Fiero deserves a dignified death. So he sells it for scrap metal and the gang use the money to pay their bar tab for the next two nights.

My Reaction: I thought it was nice to have a Marshall-centered episode for a change. I thought the flashbacks were funny (I can totally see Ted being pretentious and all philosophical in college) and were perfectly balanced with scenes from the present. I could have done without that stupid Proclaimers song getting stuck in my head, though! Overall, “Arrivederci, Fiero” was pretty good. Now let’s see if the next ep makes any mention of Robin and Ted living together!

Part of the fun of watching the Oscars has always been to check out what the stars are wearing. I can always count on seeing a several elegant creations, as well as ensembles that probably should never have been unveiled. This year, I thought Reese Witherspoon and Leonardo DiCaprio both looked fabulous, while Anne Hathaway and Kirsten Dunst made mistakes with their choices.

Maybe Hathaway and Dunst should have taken some time to read Belisi Blog: How to Look Like an Oscar Starlet before they left home last Sunday night. They would have gotten fashion tips on everything from skin care to bra straps to shoes, and surely would have made a better impression on the audience.

I’ll likely never attend an event as big or prestigious as the Oscars, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about my appearance. I’ll be sure to keep checking The Diva’s Dream for advice on how to look my best no matter where I’m going!

I thought I’d shake things up a bit tonight and do a movie meme. I’ve done a couple of these things before on different blogs, but never on this one. At any rate, here are some questions that I came across while surfing the net today:

1. Name a movie you have seen more than 10 times.
Silence of the Lambs
Thelma & Louise
Steel Magnolias
The Breakfast Club
Forrest Gump

2. Name a movie that you’ve seen multiple times in the theater.
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Goonies
Top Gun

3. Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a movie.
Matt Damon
Edward Norton
Colin Firth

4. Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a movie.
Tom Cruise

5. Name a movie that you can and do quote from.
Pulp Fiction

6. Name a movie musical that you know all of the lyrics to all of the songs.
My Fair Lady
The Sound of Music

7. Name a movie that you have been known to sing along with.
See #6.

8. Name a movie that you would recommend everyone see.
Finding Neverland

9. Name a movie that you own.
Good Will Hunting

10. Name an actor that launched his/her entertainment career in another medium but who has surprised you with his/her acting chops.
Mark Wahlberg

11. Have you ever seen a movie in a drive-in?
No.

12. Ever made out in a movie theater?
Yes.

13. Name a movie you keep meaning to see but haven’t gotten around to it.
Lord of the Rings

14. Ever walked out of a movie?
Yes. Evita and Blade.

15. Name a movie that made you cry in the theater.
Forrest Gump

16. Popcorn?
Of course!

17. How often do you go to the movies (as opposed to renting or watching them at home)?
Once a month.

18. What’s the last movie you saw in the theater?
The Pursuit of Happyness

19. What’s your favorite/preferred genre of movie?
Action.

20. What’s the first movie you remember seeing in the theater?
Star Wars Episode IV

The process of listing and selling my home was one of the most tedious and frustrating things I’ve ever gone through in my life. First of all, it took several months to find a buyer even though the realtor told me she could move the property much faster than that. Second, I wasn’t able to get the price I was hoping for, but by the time the offer actually came in, I was desperate and had to accept. And third, I ended up paying substantial broker fees even though I wasn’t satisfied with the service. That whole experience makes me wish I had heard about CashHomeBuyers.com a long time ago!

CashHomeBuyers.com is run by investors who specialize in purchasing, fixing up, and reselling residential properties. Everyone associated with the company seems to abide by the motto I buy houses because that’s precisely what they all do.

With CashHomeBuyers.com, you don’t have to go through the hassles that you’d normally have to deal with when using traditional realtors. For example, there won’t be endless requests to fix up the house or an interminable wait for the perfect buyer to come along. Instead, CashHomeBuyers.com will give you a same-day quote, and if you both like what you see, you can close the deal in as little as 3 to 4 days!

So if you’re looking to move your house quickly, I suggest giving CashHomeBuyers.com a try. Visit the site for more info or to get a quote today.

Episode 2×18 of Prison Break was called “Wash,” and continues the season-long tradition of Agent Mahone being able to discern Michael’s plans within a minute of assessing the situation. Sigh. Other than that, I thought “Wash” was actually a decent episode. Here’s what else happened.

Michael/Linc/Sara: They listen to the exonerating evidence (which the audience doesn’t get to hear for some reason) and then try to find someone who can help them use the evidence to clear Linc. With Paula’s help (she’s the one who took LJ into hiding) they settle on a guy named Cooper Green. He has ties with the Justice Department and will know the best play for this evidence.

Michael contacts Green and arranges a meeting in a nearby park. They make Green jump through a bunch of hoops (throw away his suit coat, walk into a fountain, take long, winding passages into a basement) before meeting Michael, and they ascertain that he was being tailed by other guys in suits.

While all this is going on, Sara goes to her father’s grave, and suddenly finds herself face to face with Bruce Bennett, the longtime family friend who she thought tried to have her killed soon after her father was murdered. But Bennett insists he didn’t have anything to do with that. Instead, he says his phones were tapped and that’s how the would-be assassins figured out where to find her. Anyway, Bennett says he can help, so he ends up taking her to the real Cooper Green.

Sara immediately alerts Linc to the fact that there’s an imposter with Michael. Linc goes racing off through the park to try to find his brother, but Michael already has the situation under control. He tripped up the imposter with some question about asthma medicine and took the guy out. They make their way back to the hotel to meet up with Sara and the real Green to discuss the evidence.

Sucre/Maricruz: Sucre and Maricruz head to some remote part of Mexico where Sucre’s aunt lives. They think they’ll be safe there.

Bellick: Waltzes into Mahone’s office demanding money for helping Mahone find Haywire. Mahone puts him in his place and then sends him off to Mexico to chase down the latest Sucre leads.

Kellerman: Buys a big-ass gun and says goodbye to his sister. Apparently, he’s on a mission to assassinate Carolyn.

C-Note: He tries to contact Michael via the goldfinch website he overheard Michael telling Sucre about. But Michael hasn’t responded to any of the messages C-Note left on the site. Mahone gets a call from Kim saying that they’ve got a lead on Scofield and Burrows, so C-Note is no longer an asset. Kim orders Mahone to have C-Note killed but to make it look like a believable accident.

Mahone tells C-Note that he promises to take care of C-Note’s wife and daughter if C-Note uses what’s in the package Mahone will send him later. It turns out to be a noose, and the last shot of the ep is C-Note taking a step off his bed with the noose around his neck.

T-Bag: Sees an ad for a psychiatrist who looks a bit like him. He schedules an appointment, goes in, kills the shrink, and assumes his identity. Later, he books a flight to Thailand with a connection in Chicago and one more international stop. His backpack with all the cash in it isn’t going to be allowed as carry-on, so he has to check it in. Yeah, right. Another coincidence: T-Bag ends up on the same flight as Bellick.

Mahone: Shows signs of being human. He looked like he really felt bad for C-Note and really was going to take it upon himself to make sure the wife and daughter were well cared for. He also wavered a bit when he realized that Burrows is innocent. I predict that he’ll have a change of heart where the fugitives are concerned and will end up helping them in some way.

My Reaction: I liked the Michael/Linc/Sara bits and also the Mahone screen time. I still think it’s ridiculous that Mahone can figure out exactly what’s going on in 2.6 seconds flat, but whatever. T-Bag, Bellick, and Sucre were boring as usual, but I thought the C-Note scenes were touching and I finally felt bad for that character. In addition, I have to say that I think Kellerman is finally growing on me. Maybe it’s because he wasn’t so damn smug in this episode. At any rate, I thought this was a good one and can’t wait to see the next ep!

With summer just around the corner, I’m ready to start looking for some new sunglasses. I’m not too picky in this department. I just want a pair of sunglasses that look stylish, are reasonably priced, and that will protect my eyes from damaging UV rays. Plus, I’m pretty active in the summer, so I want to purchase eyewear that would be suitable for sports. I’ve been told that Polarized Sunglasses would be my best bet in those areas, so I decided to check some out today.

I went to the ADS Sports Eyewear site and loved how easy it was to find the sunglasses that I wanted. I used the convenient sidebar links to help me navigate through their extended selection of name brand sunglasses, and also was able to narrow my search by clicking on specific activities that I planned to use my eyewear for.

I’m a big fan of Bolle and Smith products, so I was happy to see a bunch of models from those manufacturers available. I was also impressed by the competitive prices on the adseyewear.com website. I’ve done a lot of online shopping, and I could tell right away that I’d be able to score a good deal from ADS.

If you’re looking for a new pair of sunglasses that will fit in with your active lifestyle, I recommend checking out ADS Sports Eyewear. I’m sure you’ll like the site as much as I did!

Episode 6×11 of 24 aired last night, and I have to say that I am totally losing interest in this season. That had to be one of the most boring hours I have ever spent in front of the television. I’ve said from the beginning that I thought the political maneuvers of Tom Lennox and Reed Pollack were dull, and I was disappointed to see most of the program focus on the bunker. Here’s what happened.

Presidential Bunker: Reed’s cohort comes into the bunker and assembles the bomb down in the boilerroom. He’s all for killing Tom as well, but Reed convinces the guy that they’re “not killers,” they’re just trying to save their country. Uh huh. So blah, blah, blah, they get the bomb ready, Reed learns how to work the detonator, and then he goes and plants it on the presidential podium. He sets it off while Assad is standing there. It looked like Assad and a couple of Secret Service agents bore the brunt of the explosion, while President Palmer was hit with debris.

CTU: More Morris and Chloe drama about whether or not Morris has slipped off the wagon. Chloe confronts him in the Men’s Room, which was kind of funny, and though he swears up and down that he’s not drinking, he later pulls out a half-empty bottle of whisky from his back pocket. He dumps it down the sink, but I have no idea if he drank the half that was gone or what and frankly, I don’t care. Where is this storyline going?

Jack: Jack got very little screen time in this ep, which is probably why I thought the hour was so boring. He went to Logan’s retreat, and the two are going to go to the Russian Embassy to talk to some guy that might possibly lead them to Gredenko. I was really looking forward to see more Jack/Logan interaction, but I guess I’ll have to wait until next week.

My Reaction: I thought this was one of the worst episodes of the season. Maybe I should start reading spoilers so I can determine which eps would be worth watching and which ones I would be better off skipping. Wake me when something happens.

More and more people are purchasing cars online these days, and this trend has naturally led to an increase in the number of websites that serve as marketplaces where buyers and sellers can get together. As you might expect the quality and usefulness of these websites varies greatly, so it is important that you carefully consider your options before choosing which to use.

One site that I would recommend is LemonFree.com. I’ve known about the Lemon Free Car Classifieds for several months now and there are several reasons I think this site is better than all the other marketplaces out there. For one thing, LemonFree.com is completely free for both buyers and sellers! That’s right, you can list your vehicle (complete with photos) absolutely free, and you can buy a vehicle without ever having to pay extra transaction fees.

Another way that LemonFree.com outperforms the competition is by offering a comprehensive, easy-to-use search feature that quickly returns relevant results so you can spend more time looking at suitable vehicles and less time trying to figure out how the site works. You simply choose the make, model, and year(s) of the car you’d like to purchase, and then select your state from a drop-down box. It only takes a few seconds and you can sort the results by price, mileage, year, or newest listings.

Finally, LemonFree.com is better than the rest because of the sheer number of cars available on the site. There’s nothing more disheartening than putting in a search query for your dream vehicle only to discover that the site you’re on doesn’t even have those vehicles listed. With LemonFree.com you don’t have to worry about that. Just look at the 200+ pages of results that a person shopping for a Ford Explorer would be able to choose from! I found a similar number of results for Camrys, Mustangs, Accords, and nearly every other car I searched for on LemonFree.com.

Overall, I think you’ll appreciate how easy it is to find a great used car on LemonFree.com. Check out the site today and don’t spend any more money on your next vehicle than you have to!

I used to be a huge Stephen King fan when I was in junior high, but then I basically grew out of that phase and turned my attention to headier stuff. I went years and years without reading a King book, but could keep up with his work by watching the movie versions. It astounds me that Stephen King books continue to make it to the big screen since they’ve historically not been box office successes (with a few notable exceptions along the way: Stand By Me, Misery, The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile).

Anyway, when Hearts in Atlantis was released in 2001, I wasn’t in a rush to see it, but knew that I’d get around to it someday because Anthony Hopkins is in it. Well, that day didn’t come until yesterday, but I finally did see the film — without having read the short story that it’s based on, so my review will reflect that perspective.

Like many Stephen King stories, Hearts in Atlantis is about childhood and nostalgia. Bobby Garfield (played by David Morse) receives and old baseball mitt in the mail one day, and that item sets off memories of his childhood, beginning with his 11th birthday. From there, the movie flashes back to the 1960’s and we see Bobby (now played by Anton Yelchin) as an 11-year-old in a small town.

Bobby’s father died six years ago, and since that time his mom Liz (Hope Davis) has done nothing but complain about the lack of money and how hard she has to work to make ends meet. She doesn’t have enough money to buy Bobby a bicycle for his birthday (or any other present for that matter) but she always has new dresses in her closet. It’s clear that Bobby is the last thing on Liz’s mind and she doesn’t pay nearly as much attention to him as she should.

Bobby therefore spends a great deal of time with his two best friends, Sully and Carol. He also starts spending time with Ted Brautigan (Hopkins), an older man who moves into the upstairs apartment as a boarder. Ted is a bit mysterious, and talks about how “low men” who cast long shadows and put up posters about missing pets are after him.

As Bobby gets to know Ted, he realizes that Ted has special powers of some sort. Ted sometimes goes off into a trance-like state and is able to read people’s minds. Bobby touches Ted while he’s in one of his trances and a receives a bit of that power for a short period of time.

The rest of the movie is hard to explain as there’s really not much of a defined plot. Are there really low men out there? Yes. We catch a few glimpses of them along the way and they do get Ted in the end, but their presence isn’t enough to make the story suspenseful. There was just one quick reference to them being government agents who want to round up psychics to help root out communists, but that’s all we ever hear about it.

My Reaction: I was a bit baffled as to what this movie was supposed to be about. Was the main focus the relationship between Ted and Bobby? Between Bobby and his mom? Just Bobby? It was very confusing to try to watch this movie without having a clue as to what the filmmakers were trying to convey.

Also, I had no idea why the story needed to be told in a flashback. The adult Bobby didn’t do anything significant (except give a picture to Carol’s teenage daughter), so I’m not sure why the movie couldn’t simply take place during Bobby’s childhood.

I usually get annoyed by young actors playing precocious kids in movies, but I really thought Anton Yelchin struck the right note as Bobby. Anthony Hopkins and Hope Davis were also very good in their roles, but these performances alone weren’t enough to save the movie.

Overall, I couldn’t help feeling that I was missing out on a lot for not having read the book first. Therefore, I give Hearts in Atlantis just 6.0 stars out of 10 because it doesn’t hold up on its own.

The Disney theme parks are my family’s number one vacation destination. We’ve actually been to every Disney park in the whole world (except for the newest one in Hong Kong) and will continue to go again and again because we love the whole experience. The only thing that could make our trips better is if we could get free tickets!

Of course I know that free tickets are out of the question, but there are some great options out there for discount Disney Tickets. For example, I just came across a site today called DWTickets.com and spent some time browsing through all their offerings and prices. From what I saw, DWTickets looks like an excellent resource and is definitely better than other discount ticket sites. Here’s why.

First, DWTickets is actually authorized to sell discount tickets as a Disney World affiliate. In other words, they are completely legitimate and I can place my order with complete confidence.

Second, DWTickets offers better discounts than the competition. I found this pricing chart to be particularly helpful in illustrating how DWTickets can save money for my family. I like it when a company takes the time to back up their claims with hard evidence.

Third, DWTickets offers deals to many other attractions in and around Orlando. That means we can enjoy discounts to Busch Gardens, Universal Orlando, Islands of Adventure, The Kennedy Space Center, and even dinner shows right from the same site. I love that kind of convenience!

And finally, DWTickets has been in business for many years. They’re not one of those fly-by-night outfits that will disappear as soon as they get my money. I’ve read numerous testimonials about the company from satisfied customers and have no doubt that my experience would be just as smooth.

I am definitely going to be ordering discount Disney World tickets from DWTickets.com the next time my family heads to Orlando. If you want to save money on your Disney vacation, I suggest that you do the same!

It’s been a long time since I’ve watched any so-called coming-of-age movies. There are a couple of reasons for this, the main one being that I simply don’t fit the target demographic anymore. In addition, I find that these movies are seldom done well and the plots, situations, and outcomes are usually very predictable. Nevertheless, I’d heard some good things about the 2005 film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, so I decided to give it a try this weekend.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is about a group of four teenage girls who have been friends since “before birth”. Their mothers met at a yoga class for pregnant women, and as the girls, Tibby, Lena, Carmen, and Bridget, get older, they hardly ever spend a day apart.

However, that’s all about to change as they will spend the summer in four vastly different locations doing different things. The only things that will bond them together during this time are their letters and a magical pair of jeans that fits each one of them perfectly despite their obvious size differences. Each girl will have possession of the jeans for a week, and then pass it along to the next girl on the list.

Tibby, played by Amber Tamblyn, is an aspiring filmmaker who decides to stay home for the summer. She took a job at a local Wal-Mart clone to earn money so she can make a documentary about the people around her as they lead their lives of “quiet desperation.” Tibby’s view is cynical to the extreme, and she seems more intent on showing these people up as losers than anything else.

But she soon meets a younger girl named Bailey (Jenna Boyd) who will change all that. Bailey attaches herself to Tibby and insists on becoming her assistant for the film. While Tibby asks her interview subjects questions laced with sarcasm, Bailey always sees the positive in what people do and tries to make them feel good. At first Tibby gets annoyed by the way Bailey handles the interviews, but she slowly comes around. Her transformation is gradual and believable.

Lena goes to Greece to stay with her grandparents and work on her drawings. While there, she meets a guy named Kostas who interests her, but soon learns that her grandparents are embroiled in a feud with his grandparents. While it’s not quite the Montagues and the Capulets, Lena is forbidden to see him. Of course she does so anyway, and in the end convinces her grandparents to relent.

Carmen (America Ferrera), whose mother is Puerto Rican and father is Caucasian, hasn’t seen much of her dad since her parents divorced. She is very excited about the prospect of spending quality time with Al (Bradley Whitford) over the summer, but is shocked to learn that he has a whole new family now. He’s getting married to a woman who has two teenagers of her own, and never even mentioned this fact to Carmen. Carmen is willing to roll with it and give the new family a chance, but she soon sees that her father is more involved with them than he ever has been with her. She feels like an outsider and eventually just goes back home.

After talking with Tibby, Carmen realizes that it’s ok to tell her father that she’s disappointed in him and that he’s failed her. It’s hard for Carmen to do because she idolizes him so much, but she eventually gets the words out, and that saves their relationship.

Bridget (Blake Lively) goes off to soccer camp in Mexico and almost immediately sets her sights on one of the coaches. It’s against the rules for players and coaches to fraternize, but Bridget is relentless in her pursuit of him. She eventually does get him, but feels terrible afterwards. Her friends realize Bridget’s behavior is partly a reaction to her mother7s recent suicide, so they rally to help her.

My Reaction: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was a pretty good movie and I thought it worked for several reasons. First, the situations that the girls found themselves in (and their subsequent reactions) were all believable. I liked the fact that not everything worked out perfectly, and I liked that the girls discovered some difficult-to-face truths about themselves. Second, I thought the actresses in this film all turned in excellent performances. They were obviously central to the success or failure of the movie, so thumbs up to the casting department for the choices here.

I know this movie was based on a book (or a series of books), so maybe the connection of the Traveling Pants was explained better in the original material. The pants barely played a role in the film, so I wonder why it needed to be included in the story? Did things happen only when the girls were wearing the jeans? I remember that Lena meets Kostas when the jeans get caught underwater, and I remember Carmen was wearing the jeans at her father’s wedding. But I don’t recall the major events that happened when the other girls were wearing the jeans.

At any rate, I give The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 7.0 stars out of 10. It’s one of the better young adult movies I’ve seen in a long time!

I haven’t written about Boston Legal in awhile because I haven’t had much luck finding Season Two episodes. I received the Season One DVD box set for Christmas, so I was able to watch all those episodes in order. But I don’t have the DVDs for Season Two and am not planning on making that purchase anytime soon, which means I’ve been relying on friends’ TiVo recordings to try to see various eps of Season Two. Of course since those programs are more than a year old and since TiVo only gives you so much storage space, it’s been hard to come by as many eps as I would like.

I was surprised to see that there are now a bunch of new faces around Crane, Poole, & Schmidt, and many of the old faces are gone. Plus, it was a little weird that there wasn’t even any mention made of these new people as being… new. The writers are making it seem as though Denise Bauer (played by Julie Bowen) has been with the firm for a long time. There were no scenes of welcome or introduction, and she just jumped right in with litigation. There are also two new associates named Garrett and Sara, but again, I think we’re supposed to assume that they’ve been with the firm for awhile already.

Out are Sally, Lori, and Tara. Sally was fired for being a subpar lawyer, Lori left (or was fired? I don’t remember) after filing a sexual harrassment suit against Denny, and Tara left to get back together with a former boyfriend. I didn’t like Lori or Sally, so I didn’t mind that they got the boot, but Tara was beautiful and interesting, and was perfect for Alan Shore. I didn’t want to see her go and thought the ex-boyfriend angle was lame. Oh, well.

I really like Julie Bowen (I used to watch that show Ed), so I’m looking forward to seeing her on Boston Legal. I hope she remains a steady, somewhat normal character and doesn’t turn into a caricature like so many of David E. Kelley’s creations seem to do!

If you’re a gaming or tech enthusiast, then this contest should be right up your alley. The folks over at FiringSquad.com are holding an open contest to find a couple of brand new editors for the site. There are two ways you can enter this FiringSquad Editors Challenge: via a written entry or a video entry.

Written entries can be on any subtopic that’s relevant to the gaming industry and can take the form of a review, tutorial, editorial, top 10 list, or whatever you like. As long as the work is original and G-rated, you’ll be ok.

Video entries are pretty much subject to the same rules, so no surprises there. You can submit as many entries as you like in one or both categories, and it is possible for one person to emerge as the winner in both categories.

Why should you take the time to enter this FiringSquad contest? Because there are some big prizes on the line! The Grand Finalist in the Editors Challenge (writing category) will win $1,500 in cash, plus a $10,000 FiringSquad writing contract and an Intel Core 2 Extreme processor. The Grand Finalist in the Video Challenge will take home $1,000 in cash, a $5,000 FiringSquad video contract, and an Intel Core 2 Extreme processor. The runners up in each category will also score some swag, so there’s plenty of incentive to enter!

If this sounds like something you want to do, you better get a move on. The preliminary rounds end on February 28, which is just a few days away. Check out FiringSquad.com for more details, and get your entries in soon!

My husband has to use one week of vacation time before the middle of March, and it looks like we’ve got our travel plans finalized at last. We ran through so many destinations, including China and Australia, but one thing (tourist visa) or another (budget limitations) quickly ended those proposals. We also considered the Outer Banks, but decided to save that for warmer weather.

So instead of those fun and exciting places, we’re just going to St. Louis and Washington, D.C., which is a pretty big letdown if you ask me! We’ll be in St. Louis on March 3rd and 4th for the Amp’d Mobile Supercross, then we’ll head to D.C. for the 5th, 6th, and 7th. This is not quite what I had in mind for vacation, but hopefully we’ll have a good time anyway!

In recent weeks I haven’t been spending as much time reading other blogs as I should because I’ve been so busy trying to tweak my own sites and keep everything up to date. But one site I’m sure to check regardless of what’s going on is Ugh!!’s Greymatter Honeypot, which is maintained by fellow postie Owen.

Many of Owen’s posts focus on business and technology, but he also does numerous write-ups regarding various WordPress plugins that he’s found useful (or that he’s even developed himself!). For example, Owen is the one who let me know about the Dofollow comments plugin that I recently implemented and I’m going to get around to downloading his original Random Link Plugin sometime soon (like today, hopefully!).

Anyway, I think the U-G-H site is a great one, which is why it’s in my Favorites folder and is a regular stop whenever I’m surfing the web!